September 2011

Olive oil contains a high content of vitamin E and phenols which helps to stop the ageing process. The main cause of the degeneration of cells is the build up of free radicals, which are produced by the oxidization of the fatty tissues of the body. Phenols and Vitamin E, and other anti-oxidizing substances protect the body from the negative effects of free radicals.

During the ancient times women used the golden liquid as a beauty aid to soften their hair and skin. They combined the rich and nutritious olive oil with wild hillside herbs to anoint and beautify the skin. The natural olive oil based beauty products are environmentally safe, contain no animal fats or chemical preservatives, are pH balanced and are suited to even the most sensitive of skins. Administration rules for cosmetic and skin care products. The unique olive oil formula nourishes the skin leaving it soft, rejuvenated and moisturized, without looking or feeling greasy or oily.

Olive Oil Cream is a luxuriously rich moisturising facial cream that firms and deeply hydrates the skin leaving it feeling silky soft. Enriched with antioxidant and anti-ageing properties of Cretan olive oil this facial cream will help your skin feel nourished, firm and soft to the touch without feeling greasy. It also soothes, calms, relieves and tones the eye area leaving it brighter, smoother, firmer and less lined.

This wonderful and lavishly rich Olive Oil creams helps the skin in reviving its natural beauty, while you sleep. You will have a radiant, fresh and youthful looking skin when you wake up in the mornig. It is rich in nutritious and hydrating compounds, this special creams combined with the remarkable effects of olive oil protects, soothes and moisturizes even damaged or irritated skin.

Prostate Cancer: Therapy Can Help Couples' Sexual Health After Treatment

Prostate cancer can have a serious impact on a couple's sex life, but a new study found out that couples undergoing counseling can experience some kind of boost to their sex life.

Researchers looked at over 200 men who'd been treated for prostate cancer and put them and their wives into one of three groups: those who received three face-to-face counseling sessions; the other was offered internet-based-counseling, and the third was put on wait list.

After a six-month follow-up (about three months after counseling), men who in either the face-to-face or web-based counseling reported an improvement in sexual function and gratifications with sex. Spousal satisfaction increases were reported in both sexes.

Those in the wait-listed group experience no improvements, suggesting that "time alone doesn't heal the issues," study author Leslie Schover, a professor of behavioral science and a clinical psychologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston told HealthDay News.

Men who have had prostate cancer treatment may have difficulty reaching orgasm; decreased intensity of orgasm, pain and leaking urine at orgasm.

"…The counseling program focused on the women's right to pleasure in sex and on fixing problems like postmenopausal vaginal dryness or loss of desire related to poor sexual communication," Schover said.

"We educated both partners about available treatments to restore erections and had them complete a 'decision aid' to figure out what treatment to try, based on mutual opinions," Schover continued . "If that treatment did not work well for them, we encouraged them to try another choice."

source: thirdage

8 Cancer Lessons: What We Wish We'd Known A few years back, New York Times reporter Dana Jennings posted a very moving blog titled Ten Lessons of Prostate Cancer.

It touched a nerve for me -- and many of us in Cancer World -- because we all have a desperate desire to connect with others living with cancer in their lives and discover the tidbits of knowledge that only experience can teach. At Caring.com, we have a series of articles titled What I Wish I'd Known, in which well-known people share the lessons they learned in caring for loved ones. Below, in my own personal order of importance, are a few of Dana Jennings' ten lessons, augmented with others from the more than 260 people who commented on his blog, and still more from community members at Caring.com who've taken the time to share their wisdom in group postings and answers to others' questions. Feel free to add to this list.
8 lessons of caring for someone with cancer

1. Doctors forget to share the gory details. Boy, don't we know it. The list of what we don't know when we walk out of medical appointments sometimes seems longer than the list of what we do know. Dana writes that after prostate surgery, his testicles swelled up and turned bright red, something his doctors failed to mention. Others report that doctors have failed to mention such things as the need for drains -- and drain emptying -- following surgery, and the possibility of numerous side effects from chemo, everything from peeling, painful hands and feet, to a constant bad taste in the mouth. Worst of all, says oncologist Hope Rugo in her column, doctors are hesitant to share information on what families can expect as cancer progresses. This leaves the family in a constant state of reactivity, when accurate information could have allowed them to prepare for what was to come.

Lesson: Don't be nervous about asking the doctors, "How does this type of cancer typically progress?" and "What can we expect a few months from now?"

2. Insurance can cause more stress than cancer. Half the comments on Dana's blog were reports of insurers failing to pay -- and we hear plenty of those horror stories, too. Canadian patients comment that their state-run system leaves them free to focus on what matters: getting better.

3. Not all blood and chemo technicians are created equal. Dana divides them into the gliders and the pokers. My friends and I called one particularly clumsy chemo nurse "Sadistic Sadie," though, of course, never when she could hear. It's definitely acceptable, when you walk into a chemo center or lab, to request a particular tech you know to be skilled and gentle.

4. Nurses know, and anticipate, what you need. When a dear friend was in the hospital recovering from a mastectomy, it was the nurses who noticed that she couldn't open the lemonade we'd brought her and observed that her dosage of pain meds appeared to be too low. And when they shoo all of you out of the room, it may be because they realize the patient desperately needs sleep but is too polite to say so.

5. Cancer is different in younger patients than in older ones. Early stage breast cancer tends to be more aggressive in women under 40. For men, a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) reading that's "low" for a 70-year-old might not be for a man in his early 40s. PSA charts don't necessarily apply to younger men.

Lesson: Don't settle for generic information, but find out what you need to know for the particular situation.

6. Hospice is not just for the dying. I can't tell you how many cancer patients and their families say they wish they'd known to call hospice sooner. When my dad was ill with esophageal cancer, it was the hospice nurses, not his doctors, who suggested morphine patches when it was too hard for him to swallow pills. So, for the record: You can call hospice anytime a cancer is no longer considered "curable." You don't have to stop chemo to call in hospice; the chemo just needs to be designated palliative rather than curative. You can initiate hospice when there's reason to believe a patient might have six months or less to live, but you can also renew hospice if the person is lucky enough to have more time -- or cancel hospice if there's a miracle and it's no longer needed. And the minute you call hospice, you initiate a much higher level of personal care, often at little or no additional expense. In other words, many of your reasons for not calling hospice should be set aside.

7. Eat your broccoli -- and kale and other greens. Research shows that vegetarians and others who eat a diet high in cruciferous vegetables and greens have lower rates of cancer. Conversely, a diet high in fat, particularly fat from red meat, has been associated with cancer, particularly colon cancer. This is truly worth paying attention to.

8. Cancer can be a punch line. Dana describes the ways the line "I've got cancer" helped get him out of walking the dog and enabled him to commandeer the TV. It's also, I've found, a great way to help employers and other authority figures reorient priorities, and a great way for all of us to put things in perspective.

source: caring

Why Do We Yawn?

Have you had a good yawn this morning? If you wonder why we yawn, you're not alone. Scientists are trying to figure that out!

A researcher at Princeton University says yawning might the body's way of cooling the brain.

He believes when you yawn, the deep breath forces a downward flow of spinal fluid and blood from the brain that is cooled by air.

However, other experts on WebMD believe yawning is more of a social cue. In all cultures a sign of sleepiness and boredom, communicating to others that you're not thrilled but you're not angry either.

To learn how many times we yawn and all the theories about yawning- CLICK HERE

Effective foods that fight age-related disease

With increasing age, there is a further need to focus more on what you eat so as to remain fit and healthy. As one grows older, one tends to develop certain chronic conditions that affect the quality of life.

However, most of these age-related ailments like diabetes, obesity and hypertension can be controlled by managing and modifying what we eat.

By making a few dietary alterations, we can prevent the onset of these diseases. Call them superfoods, call them nutritional haven - these foods will help you overcome such age-related health conditions, giving you a chance to lead a long and healthy life.

Leafy green vegetables
Fill up on dark leafy greens if you want to avoid the risk of developing age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's disease. Studies have found that people who followed diets high in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins (as found in these vegetables) are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. Besides this, leafy greens are also important for bone health among older people and prevent the onset of osteoporosis and age-related bone loss. They also help to protect us against eye conditions like cataract.

Pumpkin
A rich source of potassium, magnesium, alpha carotene and beta carotene; pumpkins can rightly be called a superfood. They not help to boost your body immunity but also fight certain ailments that an ageing body tends to develop. In fact, it is believed that the alpha-carotene can help to slow down the process of ageing besides preventing the formation of cataracts. Hence, a liberal use of pumpkin is a must to obtain all these vital nutrients.

Nuts and seeds
From fighting age-related depression to improving your bone health and improving your brain health - the benefits of eating nuts and seeds are endless. Among these, til and walnut are an excellent source of calcium promoting bone health and preventing the occurrence of osteoporosis in the aged. Moreover, the high levels of omega-3-fatty acids found in walnuts are important for maintaining heart health. Pistachios, on the other hand, are beneficial against the development of heart diseases.

Salmon
Another rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, salmon is helpful in treating degenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease and macular degeneration of the eye. These fatty acids, in association with selenium, amino acids, Vitamin A and D protect the human nervous system from damages from aging.

Whole cereals and pulses
Include plenty of whole cereals and grains instead of the refined varieties in your diet. This will enable you to combat the common diet related degenerative disease of advancing age. As diabetes has no permanent cure, it can only be controlled by making some important dietary interventions. Moreover, if left uncontrolled, it can also affect other body organs like kidneys. The fact that these processed grains are digested more slowly than processed grains helps them to prevent high blood sugar. Also, the nutrients in them lower the risk of certain age-related ailments like cardiovascular disease.

Garlic
Cancer, particularly of the skin and lungs can be prevented by incorporating garlic in one's daily diet. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory properties of garlic help to protect against heart ailments in the aged.

Berries
Loaded with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, it is mandatory to include berries in your regular diet if you want to fight age-related diseases and ailments. Berries are best known for their anti-aging and anti-cancer properties and are often regarded as the food of choice by many doctors and dieticians across the globe.

(Source: Old Age Solutions, HelpAge India report, NCBI report)

Metastasized Brain Cancer Treated with IsoRay's Cesium-131 IsoRay a medical technology company and innovator in seed brachytherapy and medical radioisotope applications, announced today that doctors at New York Presbyterian Hospital/ Weill Cornell Medical Center have performed the world's first treatment of metastasized brain cancer using IsoRay's Cesium-131 brachytherapy (internal radiation therapy) seeds. The seeds were implanted directly into a woman's brain to treat a cancer that had originated in the breast. Treatment of metastasized cancers, cancers that originate in other organs, is the latest application of IsoRay's pioneering brachytherapy treatment that represents one of the most important advancements in internal radiation therapy in the last 20 years.

Brain cancer treatment often involves removal of the brain tumor and then waiting several weeks while patients heal from the surgery before beginning external beam radiation treatment. However, delays in treatment can increase the chance of tumor recurrence. According to recent comments by New York Presbyterian Radiation Oncologist Dr. A. Gabriella Wernicke, M.D., M.Sc.,Cesium-131 offers an important alternative because it gives doctors the opportunity to act immediately. "By implanting the seeds into the surgical cavity right away, we essentially avoid the wait and therefore prevent the potential recurrence of the tumor at the surgical site," she explained.

Since the successful treatment of the first patient, doctors at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center have expanded their use of IsoRay's patented Cesium-131 brachytherapy seeds to treat more than 20 other patients with recurrent Glioblastomas as well as metastasized brain cancer.

Cesium-131 offers many benefits over previously available alternatives. It does not require the many weeks of follow on treatment necessary in traditional external beam radiation, which involves numerous return trips to the hospital. In fact, Cesium-131 seeds deliver radiation quickly and aggressively compared to other types of internal, low dose rate radiation and limit damage to healthy surrounding tissues and organs. This is because of Cesium-131's shorter half life of 9.7 days compared to other radioactive isotopes used in internal radiation therapy. This pioneering treatment directly impacts longevity and the potential of recurrence, while improving quality of life and offering the opportunity for patients to return to normal activities more quickly.

IsoRay CEO Dwight Babcock says that he sees this as just the beginning: "The thought leaders at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center were among the early adopters of Cesium-131 because they were quick to recognize the important advantages Cesium-131 offers patients. I strongly believe that adoption of Cesium-131 for the treatment of primary and metastasized cancers will continue growing at an increasing rate as the medical community becomes aware of the significant advantages it offers in treating cancer sites throughout the body."

Babcock went on to say that the Company now has more than one leading-edge alternative to offer doctors and patients in their fight against brain cancer. "With the FDA's recent clearance of our GliaSite(R) balloon catheter internal radiation device and the application of Cesium-131 brachytherapy seeds, we now offer two powerful alternatives to fight this dreaded disease and help prevent its recurrence. This is a major advance in the war on cancer," he explained.

IsoRay is the exclusive manufacturer of Cesium-131. In addition to its CMS codes, Cesium-131 is FDA-cleared for the treatment of prostate cancer, lung cancer, ocular melanoma cancer, brain cancer, colorectal cancer, gynecological cancer, and head and neck cancer and other cancers throughout the body.

About IsoRay, Inc.

IsoRay, Inc., through its subsidiary, IsoRay Medical, Inc., is the sole producer of Cesium-131 brachytherapy seeds, which are expanding brachytherapy options throughout the body. Learn more about this innovative Richland, Washington company and explore the many benefits and uses of Cesium-131 by visiting www.isoray.com .

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this news release about IsoRay's future expectations, including: the advantages of our Cesium-131 seed, the advantages of the Cesium-131 seed brachytherapy application and the GliaSite(R) balloon catheter internal radiation device in brain cancer applications, whether IsoRay's Cesium-131 seed will be used to treat additional cancers and malignant disease, whether the use of Cesium-131 to treat brain cancers will be successful both long- and short-term in the initial and any future implants, and all other statements in this release, other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA").

This statement is included for the express purpose of availing IsoRay, Inc. of the protections of the safe harbor provisions of the PSLRA. It is important to note that actual results and ultimate corporate actions could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements based on such factors as physician acceptance, training and use of our products, our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell our products, our ability to manufacture our products in sufficient quantities to meet demand within required delivery time periods while meeting our quality control standards, our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights, whether additional studies are released and support the conclusions of early clinical studies, whether implants of Cesium-131 and use of the GliaSite(R) balloon catheter internal radiation device to treat brain cancers result in favorable patient outcomes, patient results achieved when Cesium-131 is used for the treatment of cancers and malignant diseases beyond prostate cancer, whether hospitals, medical treatment centers and physicians continue to adopt Cs-131 brachytherapy, successful completion of future research and development activities, and other risks detailed from time to time in IsoRay's reports filed with the SEC.

SOURCE: IsoRay, Inc.

New evidence highlights risk of comorbidities for COPD patients Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A new study has shown that people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or people with reduced lung function are at a serious risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The findings, which will be presented today (26 September 2011) at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, suggest that people with COPD and reduced lung function should be routinely screened for cardiovascular disease, as they appear to be at a considerably greater risk of it.

The issue of co-morbidities, when an individual is affected by more than one condition at the same time, is a growing problem for medical professionals. As people are living longer, the presence of co-morbid conditions will increase. Patients are often treated by a specialist for one particular symptom but as the prevalence of co-morbidities increases it will become important for all clinicians to recognise other symptoms.

It is common for patients to have both heart disease and COPD but it is largely unrecognised by doctors because of overlapping clinical manifestations. COPD diagnosis can remain unsuspected in people with heart disease, but having both conditions can lead to a much worse outlook for the individual.

Previously there was very little epidemiological evidence linking the two conditions, but this study is the first to identify that nasal symptoms and cardiovascular disease are common in people with COPD and could link the two conditions.

The researchers collected data on nasal symptoms and cardiovascular disease from 993 patients with COPD and 993 without COPD. In the latter group, the patients were divided into two categories; those with normal lung function and those with restricted lung function. 50.1% of people with COPD had cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease, stroke and hypertension, compared to people with normal lung function (41%).

The results showed that nasal symptoms were common in people who had both COPD and heart disease compared to people with normal lung function: 53% of people with COPD and heart disease had nasal symptoms compared to 35.8% in people with normal lung function and heart disease.

In addition, 62.2% of people with both restricted lung function and heart disease had nasal symptoms, demonstrating that the symptoms could be used as a marker for identifying increased risk of heart disease and COPD in people yet to be diagnosed with either condition.

Dr Anne Lindberg, from the Sunderby Hospital in Sweden, said: "Our findings are the first to shed light on the links between both nasal symptoms and cardiovascular condition, in relation to people with COPD and restrictive lung function. This has important implications for clinicians who need to understand the potential overlaps of these conditions when they are treating people with COPD. In addition to raising awareness of these co-morbidities, it will also be important to investigate these links further and look at the effect that co-morbid conditions have on exacerbations and disease progression. "

Professor Marc Decramer, President of the European Respiratory Society, said: "Clinicians often forget that people with one chronic condition usually have another illness at the same time. Many of the illnesses that are common alongside COPD, such as cardiovascular disease, may also share similar traits and it is vital that we build on research such as this study to identify new therapeutic targets in the future.

"The European Respiratory Roadmap, which was launched last month, outlines the need for great coordination between medical specialists. As the population is aging, the presence of co-morbidities will increase. The roadmap suggests that clinicians need to improve their recognition of other conditions to improve patient care and look at how to manage COPD in conjunction with other health conditions."

source: eurekalert

What happens in your body when you fall in love?

The feeling of happiness and other feelings when a person is in love is because of the changes and interactions of different hormones in our brain. It is not true that the heart is the center of love because the adrenaline, dopamine, fenylethylamine, endorphin and oxytocin in the brain are the one responsible for the thrills when a person is in love.

When someone is in love, dopamine gives a person the same feeling as when he/she is in cocaine use. That’s why they wanted to see the one they love.

Fenylethylamine make the heartbeat faster, breath more rapidly, and the palms of your hands sweating and your cheeks and genitals get an extra blood flow and you start to feel happier.

When you’re in love, your adrenaline causes the reaction that you’re on standby all the way. Your pupils get bigger, your heart rate goes up, your breathing gets faster and you are not so hungry because your digestive system starts to work slower.

Endorphin is the natural morphine in our body. When you are in love it has the same effects as heroine and opium which cause you to feel more happy and joyful.

Oxytocin is also called the mother hormone or cuddle hormone because when a mom breastfeeds her baby, this hormone is produced in big quantities. When you caress this hormone is produced too. It makes you feel linked, takes away fear and makes you feel confident.

The Best Vitamins and Supplements for Women

Q: Do I really need to take vitamins and supplements or is it better to focus on eating nutrient-dense foods? Which vitamins and supplements are most important for women?

A: You should always focus on eating nutrient-dense foods; however there is a place for smart supplementation of vitamins and minerals in your diet. Whole foods should be the cornerstone of your healthy diet, as this is the most effective way to get the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Nature has perfectly packaged many foods to contain vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are complimentary to one another. Some vitamins come in several different forms, and it is usually only through eating whole foods that you'll take in every version. For example, there are eight different forms of vitamin E, but synthetic vitamin E supplements are primarily only one of those forms (alpha-tocopherol).

Aim to get the majority of your daily vitamin and mineral needs from food, but here are three supplements that can come in handy:

Multivitamin/Mineral: A basic multivitamin/mineral supplement is a good insurance policy to take out on your body. They're inexpensive, you don’t need to by the ones that cost $40/month, and they can help replenish any vitamin or mineral needs that you diet is not covering. Take your multivitamin/mineral first thing the morning with breakfast and you're done for the day. Just remember that your multivitamin/mineral supplement isn't going to work miracles, and it won't replace the bulk of vitamins and minerals that you need to get from your diet. But it will make sure that you are covering all your bases.

Vitamin D: You can get vitamin D from both food and sunlight, but you may not be getting enough. Women have lower vitamin D levels than men, and living in the northern parts of the United States and/or having darker skin makes you even more likely to have lower levels of vitamin D. Research has linked vitamin D to reducing your risk of breast cancer, so supplementing your diet with 2,000 I.U. of vitamin D per day is a safe way to ensure that you're getting enough--regardless of your sun exposure or complexion.

Iron: While you may not always need to supplement your diet with iron, it's always important to ensure that your body is getting an adequate amount, as iron helps fight fatigue, optimizes oxygen utilization in your body, and boosts your immune system. A surrogate marker of your body’s iron status, your hematocrit, is measured with most standard blood tests, so make sure to bring it up with your physician next time you have blood drawn and supplement as necessary.

Meet the Diet Doctor: Mike Roussell, PhD
Author, speaker, and nutritional consultant Mike Roussell, PhD holds a bachelor degree in biochemistry from Hobart College and a doctorate in nutrition from Pennsylvania State University. Mike is the founder of Naked Nutrition, LLC, a multimedia nutrition company that provides health and nutrition solutions directly to consumers and industry professionals via DVDs, books, ebooks, audio programs, monthly newsletters, live events, and white papers.

source: shape

Fetal Facial Expressions Key to Healthy Brain Function?

Facial expressions such as laughter and crying develop before birth and become more complex as the pregnancy progresses to 36 weeks of gestation, according to a study led by British researcher Nadja Reissland.

The development of facial movements in a fetus is essential for various functions after birth - the infant sucking movement required for feeding, jaw and tongue movements necessary for speech, and movements in the face necessary for facial expressions. It is also necessary for the postnatal bonding between the baby and parents and theoretically for the study of the origins of affect.

Although facial muscles begin to develop by 8 weeks and all the muscles used in facial expressions are formed by 16 weeks, it is possible to evaluate fetal facial expressions only between 24-36 weeks as the adipose tissue builds up during this period.

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) was available for infants and for adults but no comprehensive coding system applied to fetuses. So, the aim of this study was to develop a coding system for fetal facial movement to address two questions – 1) Does the complexity of facial movement increase with fetal age? And 2) Do facial movements associated with positive and negative emotions emerge from the second to third trimester of pregnancy?.

The researchers studied the fetal facial expressions by applying the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) on modern 4-D ultrasound recordings. With increasing gestational age fetal movements of the face, limbs and torso become correlated with the structural development of the central nervous system (CNS). This development demonstrates that the connection between cerebral cortex and peripheral structures of the fetus are functional. In compromised fetuses this development is at variance from normal fetuses. Therefore by evaluating fetal expressions it is possible to predict the healthy brain function of the fetus.

Based on research using facial muscle movements to code recognizable facial expressions in adults and adapted for infants, the scientists have defined two distinct fetal facial movements- ‘cry-face-gestalt’ and ‘laughter-gestalt’. Both the movements are made up of up to 7 distinct facial movements. During the study when two healthy female fetuses were scanned at different gestational ages in the second and third trimester it was observed that the number and complexity of simultaneous movements increased with gestational age.

It was noted that between 24-35 weeks the mean number of co-occurrences of 3 or more facial movements increased from 7-69 percent. The number of co-occurrences of 3 or more movements making up a ‘cry-face gestalt’ facial movement increased from 0-42 percent while that of ‘laughter-face gestalt’ increased from 0-35 percent. Recognizable facial expressions were also observed to develop during this period.

Dr Nadja Reissland from Durham University, the lead researcher of this study says, ‘This research provides the first evidence of developmental progression from individual unrelated facial movements toward fetal facial gestalts. We propose that there is considerable potential of this method for assessing fetal development: Subsequent discrimination of normal and abnormal fetal facial development might identify health problems in utero’. This means, this coding and analysis allows researchers to ‘objectively trace the increasing complexity of movements over time which results in recognisable facial expressions’.

Thus this fetal facial movements coding method:

• can serve as a marker for normal development;

• has considerable potential for assessing the integrity of the fetal central nervous system;

• can possibly be used for the detection of functional or structural brain disorders;

• can subsequently discriminate between normal and abnormal fetal facial development to identify health problems in utero.

Source-Medindia

Brain Steroids Beneficial for MS Patients It has been recently discovered by Dr. Chris Power, and a team of researchers from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, that individuals suffering from Multiple Sclerosis lack neurosteroids in their brain and therefore, if they are given the same then it could become their call for life.

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that directly attacks the brain and spinal cord, and further roots inflammation and damage that can result either into paralysis or sometimes blindness as well.

If the treatment succeeds, then researchers will be introduced to a whole new field in MS and will be able to understand it in a better way. Also, they will get an effective treatment to the disease.

As told by Dr. Power: "We're a ways away from actually implementing it in the clinic, but we're certainly talking about clinical trials amongst our colleagues".

Earlier also, neurosteroids have been safely used for curing other kinds of brains diseases and this is something that has made the doctors optimistic about getting the approval for making clinical trials in the near future.

It has been found that with help of neurosteroids, brain cells try to talk, grow and repair themselves. And this way, damaged cells or part of the body and brain also tend to recover.

source: frenchtribune

Testosterone Robbers: Do You Know?

By the age of seventy, a man typically has half the testosterone he did when he was thirty. Invariably, energy will decline in lockstep with testosterone.

Because some symptoms are common to other conditions that drain energy, researchers think that low testosterone is a possible contributing factor in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, two other conditions whose defining signature symptom is the loss of energy. In h males and females, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are associated with low levels of sex hormones.

The endocrine system is like a giant email chain letter, with one message setting off another in a closely woven matrix of interconnections and chain reactions. Chronic fatigue sufferers, for example have a disrupted chain of hormonal reactions that begins with cortisol, which in turn can reduce levels of estrogen and testosterone.

Other conditions, from HIV to diabetes to excess body fat, can also provoke a testosterone deficiency. Even medications come into play in this intricate hormonal dance. Cholesterol-lowering medications – specially Lipitor, Mevacor, Zocor, and Pravachol – are considered “antiandrogenic” and will lower testosterone levels (not to mention onenzyme Q10, a well-known energy spark plug that is invariably diminished with this class of medication).

The moral of the story is that everything is connected. (Studies show that when “high-identifying sports fans” – people who personal identity is intertwined with a sports team – watch their team win, their levels of testosterone rise significantly). You body is engaged in a giant game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. Almost anything you do or don’t do, from taking medication to not getting enough nutrients to watching the Lakers lose (if you live in Los Angeles, that is) , can have an effect on your hormones, which in turn have an effect on your health.

“These hormones are far reaching in the body”, says Leonardi. “There are receptors for testoster-one in every organ, from the skeletal muscles to the brain”. The end result of low levels – often the symptom you notice first – is a profound loss of energy and vitality.

TEST YOUR TESTOSTERONE LEVELS
Really low levels of testosterone can have serious implications. Deficiencies can increase the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and Alzheimer’s. When in doubt, take a hormone test. (One a blood test, a testosterone level greater than 70 mano-grams per deciliter [ng/dl] is desirable).

You may also want to consider salivary hormone testing. According to Pamela Wartian Smith, M.D., M.P.H., this type of testing is the best method because it will measure the bioavailable – or most active – form of testosterone in the body, not just the free circulating testosterone in the blood.

Salivary testing also provides a perspective of what testosterone levels are doing on a daily basis, whereas a blood test will only measure testosterone levels at one point in time – the time of the test. There are individual variances with any of these options, however, so even if you’re asymptomatic, checking testosterone now will help gauge how you’re doing down the road.

Smoothing, excess alcohol consumption, and drug abuse can reduce testosterone levels, as can stress. Household chemicals and environmental toxins such as pesticides have all demonstrated antitestosterone effect, another reason to do a detox from time to time.

Because zinc is needed for the metabolism of testosterone, make sure that you have at least the recommended daily amount of 18 mg in your diet. (But don’t exceed more than 50 gm per day as a supplement on a regular basis). Foods such as seafood (especially oysters), meat, eggs, and black-eyed peas all contain zinc.

One obvious way to increase low levels of testosterone is through responsible* hormone replacement therapy. (Don’t confuse responsible, physician-monitored, physiological doses of hormones you may be low in with the kind of thing you read about when sports figures are caught using testosterone and human growth hormone along with the more garden variety steroids. These guys are getting stuff illegally and using massive amounts – a very different situation from what I’m talking about here).

Testosterone replacement therapy is not terribly expensive, and it gives you an enormous bang for your buck in terms of improved energy (not to mention mojo). “Since it increases lean muscle mass and accelerates fat loss, that would increase energy as well”, adds Leonardi. “By increasing lean muscle mass, you raise your metabolic rate”.

Leonardi adds that it would be criminal not to point out that low-glycemic nutrition and exercise are both key factors in getting the full benefit from hormone replacement therapy.

HOW TO NATURALLY BOOST TESTOSTERONE
There are also some natural ways to impact testosterone, though admittedly the effect is not nearly as profound as with replacement therapy. One way to get a quick boost of testosterone is simply by exercising. A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research reported that 30 minutes of treadmill running increased testosterone by 27 percent, with levels returning to normal 30 minutes after the run.

Weight lifting is also beneficial. I remember back in the 80s a popular bodybuilding method was the Bulgarian system, which was based on doing two fairly short (under 45 minutes) heavy workouts a day. It was predicated on the belief (probably accurate) that this was the way to get the largest increase in testosterone in the shortest amount of time. Protein shakes are a nice idea as well. They include key amino acids for testosterone production: arginine, leucine, and glutamine.

If, after all, you decide to try testosterone therapy, do it in partnership with a responsible, experienced physician who knows about hormone replacement therapy. Remember that replacing diminished sex hormones is a form of steroid treatment and can have unwanted side effects.

Using natural, as opposed to synthetic, hormones can greatly decreased the risks involved. Natural testosterone can be prescribed as a pill, a cream, injections, or a patch. According to the Journal of Urology, dermal patches best approximate the natural cycles of testosterone release, though this opinion is not unanimously held.

(Many experienced physicians, including Leonardi, prefer the shots, which aren’t as scary as they sound).

Effects of Transcendental Meditation On Heart Health

Medical science and research is turning more towards natural approaches to prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted more than $24 million over the past 20 years to study the effects of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) and other related programs on cardiovascular disease. This is a brief summary of their findings which are indeed very impressive.

Atherosclerosis- Research on Transcendental meditation program has shown that it significantly reduces the risk of atherosclerosis. This is a disease of the arteries characterized by the deposition of plaques of fatty material on their inner walls. In the study, 57 adults with multiple risk factors to the disease were randomly assigned in three groups. After one year, the carotid intima media thickness (a measurement of the thickness of artery walls) significantly decreased in the TM group.

Reduced blood pressure in at-risk teens- A four year random study found that the adolescents and teens at-risk for heart disease, after practicing daily transcendental meditation, had reduced blood pressure.

Congestive heart failure- This disease kills 300,000 people a year in the United States alone. A research conducted in University of Pennsylvania has shown that along with conventional treatments, individuals who added 20 minutes of Transcendental meditation to their daily routine showed significant improvements in measures of heart failure.

Depression- In addition to improvements in physical capacity of heart functioning, TM has been clinically proven to significantly reduce depression and bring about overall physical and mental well being.

More information about safe and effective ways of improving heart health can be read in Dr. Robert Schneider’s book Total Heart Health. Dr. Schneider has been awarded more than $20 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his pioneering research on natural approaches to prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

source: wikipeers

Glucose Metabolism in Brain Suppressed by Mobiles' Electromagnetic Field The electromagnetic field from GSM mobile phones suppresses glucose metabolism in the human brain, a new study has said.

Recent PET-measurements in Turku, Finland, show that glucose metabolism is suppressed in the temporoparietal and anterior temporal areas of the hemisphere next to the antenna.

Researchers of the study, initiated by Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) at the University of Turku, exposed thirteen young healthy males to the GSM signal for 33 minutes.

The study was methodologically unique, as it combined the expertise in brain imaging (National PET-Center and CCN), measurements and modelling of radiation (Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland, STUK) and measurements of skin temperature (Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, TTL).

No conclusions regarding health risks could be made based on the result of the study financed by Finnish Technology Agency (Tekes) as a part of the national Wirecom (wireless communication) research program.

The results of the study have been published in the Journal of Blood Circulation and Metabolism.

Source-ANI

Alcohol of Any Form is Harmful to Heart Health

While it is often assumed that red wine is beneficial to heart, an alcohol health group in Australia has hit out against the myth and said that alcohol of any kind is detrimental to the health.

The Alcohol Policy Coalition, made up of a number of health groups in Australia, has dismissed some of the recent studies that claimed that people who drink in moderation are at less risk of heart disease than abstainers.

The coalition has come out with a report citing various studies which show that any benefits obtained by light drinking of alcohol is far outweighed by the risk to the long term health.

Commenting on the study, the chief executive of the Victorian Heart Foundation, Kathy Bell said, “After reviewing all the scientific evidence, it appears any positive effects of alcohol in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease have been hugely overestimated. ’In particular, red wine has no special protective qualities.”

Source-Medindia

Key Facts: How Your Brain Adapts to Learn New Ideas or Behaviors Several factors can make (or break) the deal in terms of setting the stage for your brain to adapt to learning new ideas or behaviors.

1. When resistance to change is moderate to low.

Alas, learning is both simple and complex.

The design of your brain makes you a paradox of sorts. For example:

* On the one hand, your brain has a natural orientation toward learning from day one of your life, and, as recent findings in neuroscience reveal, a healthy brain remains hungry to learn throughout life.

* On the other hand, your brain has a built-in resistance to change, particularly after the first years of life, when the brain forms a customized set of neural patterns that act as selective perception filters.

Your subconscious relies on these customized neural patterns to interpret the world you experience. Based on these neural patterns, or early survival-love maps, however, the subconscious makes highly selective ‘decisions’ about whether to accept new learning or certain types of change.

Whereas some resistance to change is healthy and natural, high resistance blocks learning and change. More often, resistance has to do with fear, limiting beliefs, and protective or defensive strategies that have outlived their usefulness, yet remain imprinted in memory cells of the body.

There is another reason that links learning to uncomfortable or painful sensations that, automatically, release hormones such as cortisol, the stress hormone.

* For human beings, learning is inherently connected to deep inner strivings to matter, to meaningfully connect to life, contribute value, and so on.

* Thus, learning situations can activate core existential fears, such as fear of inadequacy or rejection, and your brain has a built-in tendency to push away what causes discomfort or anxiety, and to draw nearer to what causes pleasurable feelings of safety and love.

Paradoxically, however, stress enhances your brain’s ability to learn, and thus potentially your performance as well, providing you consciously keep the stress at manageable levels.

To adapt a new behavior, a conscious-you must necessarily train your brain to sustain an optimal state of mind in the most taxing circumstances. The uncomfortable feelings, if they don’t scare you away, are action signals that invite you to learn an essential skill, and that is, the ability to get comfortable with the ‘uncomfortable’ feelings you feel when you face challenges.

2. When you feel safe enough to learn.

The wiring of your brain makes you a learning-being by nature, however, when you do not feel safe, your brain switches ‘learning mode’ off and ‘protective mode’ on.

This has to do with the fact that your brain is always either in one state or the other. (Note: A type of ‘learning’ takes place is ‘protection’ mode as well, however, this is a radically different type of learning that involves ‘either-or’ behavior patterns, protective ‘fight or flee’ strategies, and the like.)

You cannot control the body’s survival response. The primary directive of your subconscious mind, after all, is to ensure your survival. This is automatic.

There is something you can do, however!

Your sense of safety in the moment is what determines whether or not your subconscious mind will activate your body’s survival response that, like a dictator, performs a coup d’étatof all the systems of your body.

You can control your sense of safety in a given situation. How?

* For one, by identifying and replacing reactive patterns that are associated with your early survival-love map with life-enriching new ones.

* Recognizing that, unless you do, your subconscious can act like an over-protective parent to block any new behaviors, in particular, ones that activate core fears imprinted in your survival-love map memory.

Learning means opening yourself up to a wide array of information to include information that is not pleasant. Not knowing something that someone else does, in itself, can send shivers down the spine of many.

If you stubbornly resist your own attempts to implement new changes, it may be that you attempting to make simple adjustments to old subconscious patterns when the situation calls for some new learning instead. A deeper healing, the kind that breaks strongholds of fear, makes conscious the subconscious, and brings about transformative change may be necessary. More on that later…

3. When you want to learn.

Learning new behaviors often involves new ways of thinking and relating. Thus, it takes more work, and more time to learn a new behavior.

It also takes more time before the information is transferred from the short term memory of the conscious mind, where it can feel more like a struggle (perhaps due to its limited memory space?), to the long term memory of the subconscious mind.

Your willingness to pay attention, to stay focused on the tasks at hand, and maintain your momentum and enthusiasm are essential.

To do the required work to learn a new behavior, therefore, you first must want, really want to do so! Depending on what you want to change, you will need at least one good reason to energize the passion you need for the neurons of your brain to ‘fire and wire’ and get the job done.

More often than not, humans do not change until the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing. You must come to the place where everything inside you proclaims something akin to the following:

* “Things have got to change! I will no longer accept the excuses in my head!”
* “What do I need to learn now to optimize my chances?”
* “What resources do I already have to make the change?”
* “What do I need to change inside to make this possible?

In other words, your habitual thinking patterns and beliefs matter.

Your thoughts or the words you speak to others, to your subconscious, are your wants. You and your subconscious mind are continually in communication, sending messages to another. In a sense, your thoughts are messages you are sending to your subconscious.

In return, your subconscious activates certain images in your mind, along with emotions and felt sensations in your body. Your feelings and sensations are the mind of your body communicating back. They tell you where you are, at any given moment, with regard to where you really want to be.

For the person with social anxiety, in the example used in Parts I and II, what they ‘really want’ (and are subconsciously communicating to their brain) is to ‘know when there is danger’ (i.e., certain looks on faces of others) in order that they may ‘flee to avoid feeling the emotion of fear’ and the sensations it activates in their body.

The focus of their thoughts, beliefs, wants, for the most part, is what produces more of what they don’t want, however.

Their subconscious mind is providing them with an unnecessary service. What is more, they are at risk of turning their otherwise amazing subconscious mind into a highly creative, virtual alarm system (that can turn social anxiety into a debilitating phobia or two)!

4. When your beliefs support change.

The beliefs you hold in memory, whether conscious or subconscious, also tell your subconscious what you really want. Whether new learning takes place or not often depends on your attitude toward the behavior you want to change, and perhaps also toward change itself.

Here are a few questions to look for any limiting beliefs or toxic thinking patterns:

* What feelings do you have about the uncomfortable feelings associated with change?

Uncomfortable inner feelings and sensations naturally accompany learning of a new behavior. Your subconscious, the part of your mind that acts as the operating system of your body, relies on your thoughts and beliefs to know how to interpret, sort or filter most of your experience of events. They form your perceptions.

* Who do you hold responsible for creating happy feelings inside you?

Many persons are trapped into thinking they have to complain or guilt others into caring about them. The subconscious appears to treat soft-wired data as tentative commands. You need to consider adopting an attitude that proclaims, “I will change how I treat myself and life. I will focus on what change I can control and make, and I will let go of change that is not in my control, i.e., changing or “fixing” others.

* What thinking patterns are you practicing?

Thinking patterns are rooted in beliefs that, like a steering wheel on a vehicle, drive your life. Your thoughts are an ongoing stream of messages that let your subconscious know what you want, believe, your concerns, fears, desires, and what you most want to focus on in the moment.

If you think you cannot handle a situation, or you associated feelings of anger or impatience when a situation makes you “uncomfortable,” then your thoughts are activating dynamic processes inside your body that turn your beliefs into your reality in the moment.

If you feel less than or inferior when learning new ideas or behaviors, learning can be a daunting experience. You need to consciously develop a healthy attitude toward learning itself, to think of it, for example, as ‘a friend who challenges you because they care.’

Your subconscious cannot interpret (most) events you experience. It turns to your interpretive thoughts or the pool of accrued beliefs in your early survival-love map. Simply put, according to our beliefs, so goes your life.

Like a genie, your subconscious seems to say, ‘your wish is my command.’

A very helpful belief to adopt, for starters, is to think and affirm: ’Challenges and problems are opportunities for growth and learning!’

5. When what you want is backed by action.

Once the mind of your body ‘accepts’ the new learning, it is integrated at deeper levels that operate subconsciously.

* What skills are you practicing, however?

Your brain, like your body, operates under a “use it or lose it” principle.

To the extent new learning is practiced, change processes proceed to then either strengthen or weaken what was learned.

While the brain is quick and open to learning and adaptation, it also likes to be efficient. In the process of strengthening the neural pathways that you most use, in similar ways, the brain weakens the connections between the cells that supported old activities, or ways of thinking and behaving, that you are no longer using as much or have ceased using altogether.

* What activities are you most immersed in?

Usually the ones you are most interested in are the ones that produce the most feel-good feelings for you. Your actions are the best indicators of the thoughts, wants and beliefs are emphasizing inside you, in other words, the ones that have the most influence in shaping your actions and life.

Constant immersion enhances certain abilities and as these “abilities” are enhanced, it naturally associates more and more feel-good feelings with the new behavior. Simultaneously, a focused attention on stopping certain patterns causes your subconscious to eliminate or “prune” these neural pathways.

* By default, these processes occur automatically, thus, they are controlled by the subconscious mind.

Did you know, however, that you can direct this practice, choosing to associate ‘feel-good’ feelings with a behavior you want increase, and ‘feel-bad’ feelings with a behavior you want to eliminate.

What is the point of having a prosperous career, yet in poor physical health? Or being in excellent health and fitness, yet your love relationship or other key relationships are detached iceboxes or tumultuous roller coasters? It just means, in the former case, that you’re thinking the thoughts of a wealthy person, but not the thoughts of a person who is healthy, trim and fit; or, in the latter case, that you’re thinking the thoughts of a healthy and fit person, but not the thoughts of a person who creates vibrant and meaningful relationships.

The more you think thoughts that associate what you want with emotions of gratitude, celebration, confidence or pleasure, the more this will bump your aspirations higher in priority to – and you will find yourself compelled to take action to manifest or bring yourself closer to them.

Conscious action combined with attitude?

All three ways of adapting to change are amazing assets, yet can also be liabilities.

* Most of the processes involved in adapting to new changes, or expanding, strengthening or weakening an existing behavior occur subconsciously.

They are assets as dynamic processes that not only help you survive, but also enrich your life with learning and action that helps you create a meaningful and intellectually stimulating life. They can be liabilities, however, when abandoned to subconscious neural patterns that contain a host of misinformation, if not plain lies, illusions, or misconceptions that mislead your subconscious mind, like a bogus treasure map, to look for treasure in the wrong places.

* Some new behaviors, naturally, are more emotionally taxing than others.

The part of your mind that runs the autonomic processes of your body, the subconscious, has a built-in overall resistance to change, and is especially resistant to adding totally new behaviors.

Adopting new ways of relating to your fears to break an addictive pattern or a phobia is, perhaps, the most challenging. When is comes to healing an unwanted behavior pattern, such an addiction or a phobia, this involves deeper, more transformative change.

Life for the physical brain and body is a continuous balancing act, and for your mind and emotions that means learning to regulate of a host of seemingly conflicting impulses to achieve balance, i.e., emotional mastery (emotion regulation).

* The experience of life can be understood as a paradox of sorts.

The natural orientation of your brain makes you hungry to learn throughout life. Yet, your brain uses a highly selective system that filters learning, and, indeed, can become rigidly resistant to new learning or change.

Your brain is designed to ‘struggle’ with the tensions (and discomfort) that are critical aspects of learning and growing your capacity to learn, to stay engaged and open and vulnerable, so that your brain can adapt to the challenges of new and complex types of learning and change.

Successful people know how to feel their fears and to use them as springboards for energizing their momentum toward their dreams and aspirations.

* The good news is that you are a learning-being at heart.

New thoughts or interpretations about your life, once “accepted” by your body are integrated and can become part of subconscious processes that transform your life.

Your willingness to pay attention, therefore, and to stay focused on your goals is especially vital to learning new behaviors. Your attitude, which essentially has to do with the overarching emotional state that your thoughts produce in any given time or situation, determines whether you quit or stay with a task to learn it. In other words, your habitual thinking patterns and beliefs matter.

* Happiness is an interpretation of a mind that is consciously aware and authentically connected to the body and heart.

In a sense, emotions are a choice, whether conscious or subconscious. Your brain is wired with a full range of “emotions” and you are wired to “feel good” about your self and life, not just to meet your physical needs for nourishment, but also to fulfill deeper needs to live a life of purpose and meaningful connection.

Your thoughts create emotional ‘standards’ that either free or limit your choices and actions. Make them liberating.

source: psychcentral

How does cancer occur? Cancer is also called malignancy. It is characterized by an abnormal growth of cells and has different types including breast cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma. Cancer symptoms vary widely based on the type of cancer but until now the actual cause of cancer is still unknown.

Cancer occurs inside the body parts when cells become abnormal and keep dividing and spreading and starts to form another more cells without control or order, forming a growth or tumor. Malignat tumors are cancer.

Cancer occurs when cell division gets out of control and divides faster than the normal rate. Usually, the timing of cell division is under strict constraint, wherein the involved network of signals that work together to say when a cell can divide, how often it should happen and how errors may be fixed.

Mutations in one or more of the nodes in this network might trigger cancer, be it through exposure to some environmental factor (e.g. tobacco smoke) or because of a genetic predisposition, or it can be both. Usually, several cancer-promoting factors have to add up before a person will eventually develop a malignant growth: with some exceptions, no one risk alone is sufficient.

The treatment for cancer includes chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.

How nails can be predictor of your health

A mere glance at your fingernails can divulge a lot about your general health. Subtle alterations like discoloration, paleness, and other imperfections may not seem much to you. But, take a closer look and you will note that some of these nail problems may require medical attention.

A number of diseases and infections like anaemia, lung disorders and fungal ailments may provoke surprising changes in your fingernails. At times, these alterations may even bring to light un-diagnosed conditions. Today, we bring you a list of some nail oddities that signal an underlying serious medical condition.

Yellow nail syndrome: If your fingernails have a yellowish tinge, it could indicate an underlying fungal infection. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, fungus is a very common cause of fingernail infection causing the nails to crumble and change in colour. Besides this, this could also occur because of some kind of liver disorder, lymphatic disorder or respiratory condition like chronic bronchitis. However, there is no need to raise the alarm every time you encounter a yellowish tint in your nails as this could also result from wearing nail polish for a very long period.

Dark lines under your nails: Perhaps, one of the most dangerous nails signs that you should never ignore is appearance of dark lines beneath your nails. This is because these lines indicate one of the deadliest form of skin cancer - melanoma. The moment you spot these purple-black or blue-black lines, rush to your doctor at the earliest.

Nail clubbing: In this condition, there is an abnormal enlargement of your fingertips, accompanied by the curving of your nails around the tips. Clubbing usually occurs due to reduced oxygen amount in the blood stream. If you have noticed these signs in your nails, it could mean that you are suffering from some kind of lung or heart disorder. One of the most common causes of clubbing is lung cancer. However, clubbing could also imply a congenital birth defect, chronic lung infection, Cirrhosis of liver or an infection in the lining of your heart chambers.

Pitted or ripped nails: Pitted nails are a very common sign of people with psoriasis or arthritis. Sometimes, this may also be associated with crumbling and loosening of the nails from the nail-bed. Apart from this, these small, linear indentations may also result from nail injuries, chronic dermatitis or alopecia areata (a condition that causes hair loss).

Beau's lines: The finding of Beau's lines or indentations that run across your nails may indicate trauma, previous illness or exposure of a patient with Reynaud's Disease to cold temperatures. You can also find these lines on your nails if you are suffering from uncontrolled diabetes, pneumonia, measles and circulatory diseases like peripheral artery disease. Beau's Lines mostly occur at the same spot of the nail plate in almost all cases and may be also caused by a severe case of malnutrition.

Koilonychia or spoon nails: This abnormality is usually reflected as transverse and longitudinal concavity on the nails and may be the result of severe trauma or certain occupational exposure to petroleum-based solvents. It may also indicate a condition called the nail-patella syndrome characterized by easily dislocated patellas, renal and skeletal abnormalities. Usually, the condition is seen in patients suffering from iron deficiency anaemia. Spoon nails can also be observed in certain infants but it usually corrects itself in a few years.

White nails: In patients with Terry's nails or white nails, you will find that most of the nail plate becomes white in colour and appears like a ground glass. Although, most of the times, the condition affects all the fingers equally, a rare one-finger involvement also occurs at times. This usually occurs in people having liver cirrhosis, diabetes, congestive heart failure and severe malnutrition. It is believed that a decrease in vascularity and an increase in connective tissue in the nail bed cause the condition.

(Source: Mayo Clinic, American Academy of Dermatology.)

How to bath a baby properly?

Baby’s bath is a major event in the daily program, both for mother and child. It should be a pleasant occasion with a minimum of fuss and bustle.

The following suggestions are intended to simplify the procedure and, at the same time, ensure the best interests of both parties:

• Give the bath in the baby’s room, the kitchen, or the bathroom.

• Put a portable baby bathtub on the table or place a rectangular plastic dishpan in the kitchen sink. Thus the mother does not have to kneel on the bathroom floor while keeping the baby from drowning in the low, adult-sized tub.

• Fill the baby’s tub with water that feels warm to the skin of the mother’s elbow – about the same temperature as any adult would prefer for a bath tub.

• Have the room temperature at about 70°F. (21°C)

• Undress the baby quickly and place him at once in the warm water.

• Support the baby’s head with one hand while washing his entire body gently and thoroughly with a mild soap on a soft washcloth held in the other hand.

• Avoid using small cotton swabs for the child’s ears, nose and eyes. Their use is dangerous.

• On removing the baby from the bath, wrap him loosely in a large bath towel and place baby and towel on a small blanket while you dry his skin gently.

• Use oil or lotion only in places where the skin is peeling and cracked.

• Powder, when used, should be unscented.

• Dress the baby quickly while he is held within the folds of the blanket.

Why B-Complex Vitamin is Important?

Take a B-Complex Vitamin

We have to work backward a bit to uncover the connection between taking B-vitamin supplements and improved energy, but you don’t have to be Columbo to do it – it’s pretty easy to uncover the relationship.

Consider, for openers, vitamin B12. Clinical symptoms of B12 deficiency take many years to appear. And one of the biggest symptoms is fatigue.

Despite what our vegan and vegetarian friends may believe, B12 is only found in animal source foods. This isn’t just my opinion; it’s also the opinion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it is stated as clearly as possible in the exhaustive Encyclopedia of Dietary Supplements, edited by Paul Coates, the director of the Office of Dietary Supplements for the National Institutes of Health. So let’s stop with the “we can get all the B12¬ we need from plants” arguments. We can’t.

Now why does that matter? Because B12 deficiency is far more prevalent than previously assumed, and vegetarians, even those who consume diary products are at risk. Because a lot of health-minded people shun meat these days (not because meat per set is bad, but because the meat we tend to buy is so horrible), this is a big concern.

Another problem is that B vitamins are eaten up alive during stress, and if you’re reading this, chances are that you and stress are not exactly strangers. That’s an important reason why many people feel so much better supplementing with a B-complex vitamin (more on that below). Even the popular media seem to have caught on to this. An article in a 2003 issue of Psychology Today was appropriately titled “Vitamin B: A Key to Energy” and subtitled “To Fight Fatigue, Irritability, and Poor Concentration, Power Up with B Vitamins”.

Not for nothing were the ‘Dr.Feelgoods” of the 1950s and 60s known for dispensing shots of vitamin B12. It does make a lot of people feel better, especially if you’re low in this vitamin to begin with. And as we get older, we lose a lot of our ability to absorb it from food.

THE B FAMILY : AN ENERGY ORCHESTRA
But it is not just B12 that’s critical for energy. Vitamin B6 is needed for the manufacturing of all kinds of brain chemicals and enzymes, and it is critical for making serotonin, the feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain. (That’s one reason why, in The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth, I recommended B6 as a vital ingredient in my “PMS Cocktail”. Serotonin levels frequently drop before and during menstruation, a fact that didn’t escape the pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly, who recently repackaged it famous serotonin drug Prozac as Serafem, which is now prescribed for PMS. Vitamin B6 seems to help the body replenish this important neurochemical naturally).

B6, together with B12 and folic acid (another member of the B family), works to bring down a nasty inflammatory compound in the blood called homocysteine, which can increase your risk for heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer’s. Plus B6, together with B12, contributes to the myelin sheath that covers nerve cells and is necessary for signals to travel through the brain at warp speed. Without enough B12 or folic acid, your poor blood cells can’t carry enough oxygen to the brain. And that would sap anyone’s energy.

All the B vitamins have important functions in the body, and some, such as thiamin (B1) and riboflavin (B2), are critical for normal energy production in human cells. In one 1997 study done in Wales, healthy women who took B1 supplements had faster reaction times and reported feeling more clear-headed and energetic.

Although there are occasions where specific B vitamins can be useful (such as B2 for headaches, the occasional shot of B12 for any number of things, and the aforementioned B6 for moods and carpal tunnel syndrome), the B vitamins actually perform quite like an orchestra; if you really want that rich sound that the orchestra is capable of, you need all its members to play together. That’s why most health professionals recommend taking a B-complex vitamin, even if you think you’re low on one specific B.

If you do want to take one of the B family for a specific health reason, no problem. Just remember to also take a B complex, preferably at a different time during the day for maximum absorption. According to my friend, nutritionist extraordinaire Linda Lizotte, R.D., a high level of one of the B vitamins can cause an imbalance or deficiency in some of the others, which is not a problem if you’re also supplementing with B complex.

Deep breathing to instantly boost your energy

I asked my doc for some tips that you might be able to use right now to instantly boost your energy. She suggested practicing deep breathing.

“Most of us breathe very shallowly”, she told me. “When we get upset, we hold our breath. Consequently, get stuck in that feeling of fear or anger, and those two emotions are energy zappers”.

Here’s how to do it:

• Take long, slow, deep breaths as soon as you start feeling stuck on a negative emotion.

• Breathe in through your nose, filling up your stomach, and then breathe out through your mouth. Do this until you establish a rhythm, like waves of the ocean moving in and out on the shore.

• Connect with what you are feeling so that you can release it.

• Now ask yourself, “What am I feeling that I need to release?”

• Let that feeling surface.

• Is it anger, frustration, insecurity, or something else?

• Allow yourself to rally feel it.

• Hold your breath for the count of five.

• AS you exhale, imagine that there is an orb of gold light in front of your.

• Release those feelings that are keeping you stuck into the gold light.

• Feel as if the gold light is a powerful vacuum cleaner, pulling all negative emotion from your body, organs, and cells.

• Keep breathing and releasing until the negative feelings dissipate or until the negative emotion feels neutralized. You will feel a shift.

“It is important to release the feelings and then replace them with something else,” She told me. “This is the step that most of us forget”.

Here’s how to do it:

• Once you have neutralized the negative feelings, begin to visualize how you want to feel (joyous? Peaceful?). Then begin to bring in those feelings associated with that condition or state.

• For this part of the exercise, imagine an orb of white light.

Allow that white light to fill your body and the entire space surrounding you.

“Remember, nature abhors a vacuum, so you need to fill up the space you have just emptied of negativity with gorgeous and beautiful energy and visualizations”.

“If you can visualize it, you can believe it. If you can believe it, you can do it”. Nowhere is that truer than with energy. If you can visualize the kind of positive, joy ours energy you want to fill your life with, you will be on the way to creating it. And that’s the kind of energy we all want in your lives.

Unravelling the disease/diet relationship

It's the era of food labels, Heart Foundation 'ticks' and nutritional guidelines. After years of government nutrition campaigns, most people now know how important a healthy diet is. Eating too much fat and salt increases the chance of heart disease while certain foods (such as fruit and vegetables) protect against cancer and other diseases. The knock-on effect is that many people now rightfully demand healthy food choices.

However, as evidence of the importance of healthy eating continues to mount, the complexity of nutritional science is also increasing. Scientists now understand not only the role of individual micronutrients (such as calcium) but also how different micronutrients interact with each other in the human body. Scientists have demonstrated that there's more to nutritional value than just vitamins, and many bioactive substances like polyphenols that are found in food have been identified as potentially protective against disease. Similarly, science has provided ample evidence that 'oils ain't oils' when it comes to heart disease.

But advances in nutrition science don't mean eating choices have to be more difficult. Natural whole foods like grains, fruits and vegetables remain the first choice for preventing chronic disease, it's just that now we're starting to work out why. This knowledge can also be used to guide the development and use of nutritional supplements, giving people more options for getting the goodness they need.

Eating to prevent disease

Nutritional intake is increasingly understood to influence the risk of chronic disease. Associations between diet and disease became apparent when lower rates of certain diseases were noted in geographic populations with distinct eating habits. For example, in the 1950s the cardiovascular-protective effects of a Mediterranean diet were investigated after the eating habits and low rates of cardiovascular disease in Mediterranean populations were noted.

Five of the ten leading causes of death in developed countries, including coronary heart disease, certain cancers and type 2 diabetes, have now been shown through scientific studies to be associated with nutrition. Unhealthy eating habits increase the risk of these diseases. Conversely, good nutrition protects against them. It's clear that healthy eating in general is important, but surely with all the science available we can be more specific than that?

As it turns out, we now know a lot more. Increased understanding of food and its component parts has led to increased recognition of the complexity of food, and the ways in which the various components of a whole food such as a piece of fruit or a fillet of fish influence health and disease.

Substances in plant foods

It is difficult to separate out the effects of one single component of a food, as whole foods contain numerous vitamins, minerals and other components that interact and function in different ways. However, advances in nutrition science are enabling a better understanding of food's component parts. For example, bioactive components of plants (components which have an effect on the body) that may protect against certain diseases have been investigated in recent years. Amongst them, polyphenols are receiving increasing attention in relation to disease prevention.

There are many types of polyphenols found in plant foods. The most common types include:

* Isoflavones: Food sources include red clover, soy and legumes;
* Coumestans: Food sources include alfalfa and clover sprouts; and
* Lignans: Food sources include linseed, grains and vegetables.

Eating to protect against menopausal symptoms

There is considerable evidence that eating habits in various countries and various ethnic groups influence the incidence of particular diseases and the severity with which individuals experience them. For instance, amongst women in Asian countries, 10–20% experience hot flushes (the most common symptom of menopause) compared to > 70% in North America. In general, Asian women experience later onset and less severe menopausal symptoms.

In comparison to North American women, Asian women consume relatively large amounts of soy products which contain polyphenols called phyto-oestrogens. Phyto-oestrogens are a type of polyphenol from the isoflavone group. They are bioactive substances with numerous disease protective mechanisms, including:

* Anti-oxidant properties which help to protect the body's cells from damage by free radical molecules;
* Anti-inflammatory properties which help to prevent cells becoming inflamed; and
* Anti-carcinogenic properties which help to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

The lower rate of menopausal symptoms amongst Asian women led scientists to the hypothesis that consuming phyto-oestrogens in the diet reduces the symptoms of menopause. This may be because when a person consumes isoflavones, they are metabolised in the gut to compounds with a similar structure to oestrogen, supplementing the reduced hormone production experienced in menopause. But, of course, it's not as simple as that. Metabolism of phyto-oestrogens is largely controlled by gastrointestinal flora which differ between individuals and over time. The types of foods consumed and the duration of exposure to soy (e.g. lifetime or less) further influences an individual's ability to metabolise phyto-oestrogens to biologically active oestrogen-like forms. However, while the oestrogen-like compounds produced from the breakdown of isoflavones are similar to natural human oestrogen, their effects are weaker.

Numerous studies of the effects of dietary and supplemental forms of phyto-oestrogens in the management of menopause symptoms have been conducted. Evidence is currently insufficient to recommend phyto-oestrogens as a direct substitute for the current first-line treatment (hormone replacement therapy).

Long-term hormone replacement therapy, while effective in reducing menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, is associated with adverse health effects, including abnormal blood clotting, breast cancer, stroke and coronary heart disease. Health professionals have also raised concerns about the long-term safety of supplemental forms of phyto-oestrogens, however the available evidence does not support these concerns and dietary polyphenols are currently considered safe. Although not recommended as routine therapy, natural therapies like phyto-oestrogens are preferred by some women experiencing menopause. The increasing scientific understanding of phyto-oestrogens has created a wider range of choices for menopausal women, allowing them to make informed decisions about the type of therapy they use and specific changes to their diets that may be beneficial.

Cancer

Polyphenol consumption has also been associated with reduced cancer risk. For example, the soy-bean isoflavone called genistein has been associated with lower rates of breast cancer. Studies examining the rates of breast cancer in different countries and geographic locations with particular eating habits show that Asian populations (which have relatively high soy consumption) have lower rates of breast cancer than European and North American populations (which have relatively low soy intake). The high soy intake that Asian people are exposed to early in life is thought to be crucial in producing the observed cancer-protective effect.

The mechanisms through which polyphenols exert a cancer-protective effect relate to the way they influence DNA methylation, an event that helps DNA remember where it's been. Every cell in your body contains the same DNA, even though they may have different functions. DNA methylation helps a liver cell, for example, remember that it's a liver cell and function accordingly. If DNA methylation occurs abnormally, cells do not reproduce exact copies of the genetic material they contain. Abnormal DNA methylation may prevent the correct copying of cancer-suppressing genes into a new cell, and this has been linked to cancer development. Polyphenols have been shown to regulate gene expression in the cell cycle, including the expression of genes that suppress cancer growth, and in doing this they are believed to protect against cancer.

Different polyphenols act on different body cells, and thus provide protection against different types of cancers. A reduced risk of some gastrointestinal, reproductive, prostate and skin cancers has been associated with green tea intake, and it has been proposed that genistein (the polyphenol in green tea) has a protective effect in relation to some cancers. Similarly, drinking coffee, which contains the polyphenol cholorogenic acid, has been associated with a 4% decreased risk of pancreatic cancer in men and women with each cup per day increase in coffee consumption. However, the risk or benefit of increasing daily intake of coffee was not studied beyond 6 cups per day, and it is not recommended that individuals drink more coffee than this.

Consumption of coffee and/or caffeine has also been associated with decreased risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and Parkinson's disease in post-menopausal women not using hormone therapy. Consumption of chocolate, the cocoa of which contains high concentrations of polyphenols, is also associated with a reduced risk of cancer and other diseases including cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease and omega fatty acids

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality in developed countries and has received much research attention. Many foods (in particular fat and salt) have been associated with increased cardiovascular risk. More recently, different types of fat (such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids) have been shown to influence cardiovascular risk in different ways.

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of fat found most commonly in seafood, but also in some plants. They have been associated with cardiovascular protective effects. It is thought that omega-3 fatty acids (and other plant-derived fats such as oleic acid) protect the cardiovascular system by preventing inflammation in blood vessels.

However, it might not be omega-3 fatty acids alone that protect against cardiovascular disease. For example, omega-3 fatty acid-rich foods like fish also contain high concentrations of the micronutrient selenium, which is thought to help protect against disease. This makes it difficult to determine how much omega-3 fatty acid and selenium contribute to the protection provided by the food as a whole. Overall evidence of omega-3 fatty acid's benefits is sufficient that the American Heart Foundation recommends increased consumption as additional therapy for individuals with cardiovascular risk (e.g. those who have experienced a heart attack).

Omega-6 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats commonly found in corn, sunflower oil and other plant products. They are essential components of human nutrition and fulfil important functions in the brain and reproductive organs. However, unlike omega-3 fatty acids, some types of omega-6 fats actually promote inflammation which may contribute to cardiovascular disease. Demonstrating the complex nature of nutrition and health, these two fatty acids are chemically related and omega-6 fatty acids can, theoretically, be broken down to omega-3 fatty acids (although this doesn't occur in humans).

The total intake of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids is not the only dietary aspect to consider: the balance between these two fatty acids is important to human nutrition. A higher ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (as consumed in a Mediterranean-style diet, for example) is considered protective in relation to cardiovascular and other diseases, even if overall fat consumption remains unchanged. However, Western diets typically contain a higher proportion of omega-6 fatty acids: in the United States the typical diet contains 14–25 times more omega-6 fatty acid. The ratio of omega-6 fatty acids consumed in developed countries is currently considered so high that it increases the risk of death and illness.

Conclusion

Advances in nutrition science have yielded new knowledge regarding the associations between diet and disease. While the age-old advice to consume a diet based mainly on plant foods including whole grains and limited animal-derived foods remains true, more nuanced messages are now possible and necessary. This knowledge now enables consumers to make more specific nutritional choices, which should be good news for individuals wanting to improve their health by improving their nutritional intake.

Why it is hard to control anger at times

When levels of a brain chemical called serotonin are low, which often occur when someone hasn't eaten or is stressed, it may be more difficult for individuals to control their anger and, in turn, make them more prone to aggression, UKL researchers say.

For the study, healthy volunteers' serotonin levels were altered by manipulating their diet.

The researchers then scanned the volunteers' brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as they viewed faces with angry, sad, and neutral expressions.

The research revealed that low brain serotonin made communications between specific brain regions of the emotional limbic system of the brain (a structure called the amygdala) and the frontal lobes weaker compared to those present under normal levels of serotonin.

The findings suggest that when serotonin levels are low, it may be more difficult for the prefrontal cortex to control emotional responses to anger that are generated within the amygdala.

Using a personality questionnaire, they also determined which individuals have a natural tendency to behave aggressively.

In these individuals, the communications between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex was even weaker following serotonin depletion.

As a result, those individuals who might be predisposed to aggression were the most sensitive to changes in serotonin depletion.

The study was recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry .

source: TOI

Alcohol DOES give you cancer, say scientists Alcohol DOES give you cancer, say scientists ... bit of a downer for Friday night down the pub

Drinking alcohol can increase your risk of cancer because ethanol is itself a carcinogen on certain parts of the body, scientists have found.

Researchers said they found that when ethanol is broken down by the body, it can cause DNA damage that may lead to dangerous changes to the cells.

The U.S team from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Maryland, used human cells engineered to produce an enzyme that is found in liver and breast tissue.

They exposed the cells to a concentration of alcohol similar to blood alcohol levels attained after having a few drinks on a night out.

The results confirmed that the alcohol (ethanol) was being converted to acetaldehyde, causing DNA damage and switching on the cell's DNA repair genes.

Study author Philip J Brooks, said: 'Although the link between drinking alcohol and certain types of cancers was first established in the 1980s the existence of such a relationship did not prove that alcohol itself caused the cancers.

'More recent evidence, however, has confirmed that alcohol - or more specifically, ethanol - is carcinogenic to humans at several sites in the body.'

Dr Brooks said the carcinogenic role of acetaldehyde came to light after East Asians were found to have an elevated risk of oesophageal cancer.

He said: 'In most people, acetaldehyde is quickly converted to acetate, a relatively harmless substance, by an enzyme called ALDH2.

'However, approximately 30 percent of East Asians are unable to metabolize alcohol to acetate due to a genetic variant in the ALDH2 gene, and have a greatly elevated risk of oesophageal cancer from alcohol drinking.'

He added: 'While our work is consistent with a role for acetaldehyde in alcohol related liver and breast cancer, more studies in animals and humans will be necessary to prove such a role.'

Oliver Childs, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: 'We've known for some time that alcohol is linked to several cancers, and it's likely that it causes different types of cancer in different ways.

'This work takes us a step closer to understanding one of the ways in which alcohol contributes to the development of breast and liver cancers - it will be interesting to see if this lab work translates into studies in people.'

The study was published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

source: dailymail

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